Note To Social Security Trolls: No Law Is Permanent

by: Chris Bowers

Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 18:49


From a liberal concern troll on Social Security:

"Wouldn't it be a progressive achievement to lock Social Security in for everybody alive today and their children?" one person close to the issue asked me. "Why wouldn't we do it? [As for] how you do it, there will be a long discussion with stakeholders to get it done."

Fixing Social Security for everyone alive today and their children? What if an infant who is alive today has a child when she is 42, and that child goes on to live to by 108? In such a scenario, can someone please explain to me the process of passing a law that is guaranteed to remain untouched for 150 years?

The idea that a public program isn't secure because, even according to conservative estimates, it has 100% funding for "only" another 32 years has long one of the dumbest ideas permeating our national discourse. However, the idea that we can impose public policy on the 150th Congress is actually even dumber. In a democracy, all laws can be changed, including those detailed in the Constitution. As such, it is impossible to dictate public policy 75 years from now, when almost everyone in Congress will not even have been born yet, and when everyone currently in Congress will have passed away. You can't pass a law that will "fix" Social Security for 75 or 150 years anymore than the Pittsburgh Steelers can use this year's draft to shore up their offensive line for the 2054 season.
Chris Bowers :: Note To Social Security Trolls: No Law Is Permanent

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Note To Social Security Trolls: No Law Is Permanent | 7 comments
I think the Steelers have a better shot actually (4.00 / 4)
You can't pass a law that will "fix" Social Security for 75 or 150 years anymore than the Pittsburgh Steelers can use this year's draft to shore up their offensive line for the 2054 season.

You trade all your draft picks for the next five years, each to one team, in exchange for their number one pick in 2050, 2051, 2052, and 2053.

Your anology is perfect though, because it gets right at the heart of what we're talking about - a tradeoff in wellbeing today for a mythical future, while ignoring whether or not the goal is really a high priority or if there aren't other, more pressing concerns that one might want to deal with.

On an aside, it's too bad ex-football players retire and become Republican Congresspeople rather than the other way around. :)

Not all of them.... (4.00 / 2)
Franco Harris is a Democrat!

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!
[ Parent ]
Someone should tell this to Bobby Jindal (4.00 / 2)
He was on the Sunday shows complaining about a "permanent" increase in unemployment benefits because of the stimulus package, not realizing that his state could simply opt out at any time.

This also applies to the GOPers who wanted to make Bush's tax cuts "permanent", as if some future Congress couldn't undo them.

There is nothing permanent in government. Even the Constitution can be amended.

We need to stop this nonsense (4.00 / 5)
their is no problem with the solvency of social security.  We need to just come out and say it.  Dealing with social security before addressing health care reform is like spending the money to completely repaint your house when there is a major leak coming from your roof.
108 is a conservative estimate. (0.00 / 0)
When today's retirees are +30 years into Social Security, what kind of biotech do you think we will have?

Enough to get them to 130?

It is possible.

Is he nuts? (4.00 / 2)
Did I really hear the President talk about tax payer savings accounts????   Does he think, because he is a Democrat, that he can cut benefits and get away with it????

It is too scary for words.

I live in a true blue state--I will have a choice in November

Yep (0.00 / 0)
That's a great point, Chris. It's absurd anybody is worrying about what Social Security's finances will be like in 32 or 75 years rather than the out of control health care costs and counterproductive foreign occupations that are blowing huge holes in the budget right now.
Note To Social Security Trolls: No Law Is Permanent | 7 comments
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